Instead of asking why, remember “Who.” We don’t always know why things went the way they did, but in “Why Did I Go Through All Of This?” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church teaches us to focus – not on what was missing this year – but on all the ways God showed up.
Instead of concentrating on all of the
moments it didn’t go your way this year,
flip the flow. What went right? What did
work out? Who did stay? Who did give you a
hug? How did he meet your needs? How did he
come through? Did he come through for you?
Flip the flow.
Stop focusing so much on what you did or didn’t
get. Maybe it isn’t about what God wanted to do
for you this year as much as it is about what
he wants to do through you in the future.
I sense a little bit of confusion.
I’m going to be honest with you.
It’s like, “All right. All right, Pastor Steve.
This is inspirational. Don’t get
me wrong. I admire your enthusiasm,
but you said ‘Come through
drippin” and the text said
they came through on dry ground.
See? It’s right there in the…”
That’s all of the people who don’t know the
definition of drip except in the technical sense.
I didn’t either. I didn’t either.
No, I was clueless. I didn’t know either until
Graham came into my closet one day this summer.
He was going through my drawers
where I keep my watches.
I have a couple of watches in
there. I have a few chains in there.
That boy (11 years old) had gone in
my jewelry drawers and put every chain
in my jewelry drawer around
his neck all at the same time.
When I said, “What are you doing
in my drawers?” he said, “Dad,
what if I went to school the first
day of school this year drippin’?”
I’m so clueless now. I’m really not as cool
as some of y’all want to give me credit for.
You just project your own coolness onto me. I
am not cool. I’m a little Bible preacher from
Moncks Corner, South Carolina. To which
I said, “Is it going to be raining? You’d
probably better dry off. You’d probably
better not go to school drippin’.”
He said, “No, Dad. Drippin’. Like,
drip, drip. Like Cardi B. Like Offset.
Like flexin’. Like drippin’.”
I said, “Oh. You mean drippin’. Drip,
drip.” He played me the song. Ice.
That’s nice. Can I have it? Yeah, thank you.
I appreciate it. That’s nice. Can I have it?
Appreciate it. That’s nice. Can I have it?
Appreciate it. I’ll buy you another one.
God is going to honor your faith.
Can I have it? Everything you have.
Can I have it? Not the wedding
one. That’s sketchy on every level.
Can I have it? I still didn’t tell
you what drippin’ has to do with
the children of Israel. I understand
it’s a little confusing, because
typically when this passage is preached all we
ever really talk about is what they went through.
Four hundred thirty years of oppression, and
after that the plagues they endured and the
time at midnight when the angel came through and
struck down the firstborn of Egypt, but if they
had the blood on the doorposts at midnight when
the angel came by, if they had the blood on the
doorposts when the angel came by at midnight,
if they distinguished themselves at midnight,
the angel passed by them. When Pharaoh
finally let the people go… There is one thing
I have seldom heard mentioned in
messages that I always found odd.
To really understand how the people of God not
only went through the Red Sea but how they came
out of Egypt, you need to see something in
Exodus, chapter 3, when God first spoke to
Moses that I think is so important for us
to understand tonight before we leave 2018,
before we leave the pain of it, the trauma of
it, the successes of it, the victories of it.
There’s one thing I think we need
to do tonight before we leave
whatever Egypt, whatever suffering,
psychological or physical, whatever bondage,
whatever has forced itself on us in this
year in whatever way. Before we leave it,
let’s not be too quick to leave and just expect
that because the calendar changes our lives will.
It’s really interesting what God said to Moses.
He said, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Let
my people go.’ Tell him you’re taking all the
livestock to sacrifice to me in the wilderness.
Tell him you’re going for a three-day journey to
sacrifice to the Lord your God. He’s not going
to let you do it, but you have to be resilient.
He’s not going to let you go
easily because you’re valuable.”
Freedom isn’t going to come with a good feeling.
Freedom is going to come by force and focus and
frequency. By force and focus and frequency. By
force and focus and frequency. Deliverance isn’t
going to be a magic trick in your life or my life,
no more than it was for the nation of Israel.
There will be a discipline
of sustainable deliverance
in each of our lives, because God will give us
the way of escape, but he will not let us choose
the way of escape down the road of ease that we
might select in our most comfortable moments.
Yet God said, “I want to show you the
reason for what you went through.”
Not only did the water come to cover the enemies
of the Israelites. I love God for what he does.
He uses what I went through to set me free from
where I came from. He knows if he doesn’t kill
certain things in my life I will operate by the
same template from my childhood. I’ll operate
in the same patterns. I’ll stay locked in
the same prisons if he doesn’t kill it.
So he brings me through deep waters to
drown my enemies. He said, “Before you go, I
will make the Egyptians favorably disposed
toward this people, so that when you leave…” I
wonder if this is true in 2018. “…so that when you
leave…” So that before we count down to midnight
all over the world, so that when you
leave and put this one in the books…
“…so that when you leave…” I prophesied this over
you. “…you will not leave empty-handed.” Watch
what I want you to do. God told Moses, “Every
woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living
in her house for articles of silver and gold and
for clothing, which you will put on your sons and
daughters [so that when you cross out of Egypt
on dry ground you’ll come through drippin’].”
I feel God on this sermon. I don’t just want you
to come out. I want you to come through drippin’.
“And so you will plunder the Egyptians.” By
the way, y’all, we called this a praise party,
but it’s not. It’s a praise plunder. We have
to make sure before we leave 2018 we get
everything God has for us in the form
of a blessing, in the form of a lesson.
You will plunder the Egyptians. So when you come
through, you make sure you don’t come through
like you went in. That’s why
I wanted us here tonight.
Why would we want to come through all
of this and come out empty-handed?
I didn’t go through 2018 just to wave goodbye
to it. I didn’t work this hard in Egypt and
suffer this much in Egypt and push through
the things I pushed through not to receive
the benefit of it. No, I came here on this night,
on midnight of the last night, on the last stop,
because I want to come through
saturated with the presence of God,
saturated with the glory of God,
overflowing with the glory of God.
I don’t want to leave this year empty.
I don’t want to come into this Praise Party…
Yeah, I’ve been through some things. Yeah, there
were some things that tried to take me out, and
there are some things I still have to deal with,
but I didn’t come to church to come through
draggin’. I’m coming through drippin’!
It doesn’t mean I wasn’t disappointed. You can
be disappointed and still come through drippin’.
You can be like Samuel, the prophet
who prayed for Saul and coached Saul
and mentored Saul. There came a time where
God rejected Saul, whom the people had chosen.
Samuel was so hurt about it he wasn’t
even sure if he wanted to go on
when he saw how little his investment had yielded,
but God told Samuel something that was in my
heart to say to you before we hit midnight.
He said, “I need you to stop mourning
over what I have rejected that I have
already made a plan to replace in
your life.” Here’s your instruction:
“Fill your horn with oil and be on your way.” When
you get to Jesse’s house, he’s going to line up
all of his sons who he thinks should be the
next in line to be a possible king, but don’t
look at it like people look at it. Don’t look
to see who’s the tallest or who’s the strongest.
I need you to stop judging your life by what
you can see and take that oil and take that joy
and take that strength you have left and
take those lessons you learned this year,
and when I tell you it’s the one, I want
you to empty that cruse of oil on his head.
David wasn’t even in the room
when they started lining up sons.
He was overlooked, but by the time God spoke,
he went back to the sheep field drippin’.
Why? It’s not what people do to you.
It’s not what people see in you.
It’s not what people have said about
you. If the oil of God is on your life…
I’m drippin’. I’m drippin’. My feet are
dry, but I’m drippin’ on the inside.
God brought me through, but I have
a power that is not of this world.